One girl knew he was a fake. You see her at about 3:00. I think it's not a mere coincidence that the young woman is strikingly beautiful. Well-tuned bullshit detector.

If my older readers don't get the "Napoleon Dynamite" reference, you could get the highly amusing movie at Amazon, which, as you may know, I'm hoping you will enter through the Althouse portal when you do any shopping you might need to do. But if you don't want to get up to speed on Pedro from "Napoleon Dynamite," I'll bet you remember Bill Dana doing the Mexican accent as Jose Jimenez. Here's Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez playing an expert in how Santa Claus is supposed to speak:

Dana retired the Jimenez character in 1970. It was considered in bad taste to get laughs playing a dumb ethnic stereotype with an accent. But it's not the 70s anymore, and maybe it's okay for Barrientos — who is a standup comedian — to do this routine, since his agenda is to expose the prejudices of the audience and to critique them and dispel stereotypes. I don't know. It seems to me that there was some real hostility in doing the accent for 4 months on the theory that people would think ill of him. He could have been building relationships. Going public now, he's leveraging his comedy career on deceit and betrayal, which only seems worthwhile if they really were small-minded bigots. In that regard, note that the 2 most fooled students were a couple of black guys — highlighted at the very end, for maximum comic effect.

It goes to show that just because you go to a community college, it doesn't mean you are dumb or less intelligent than someone who goes to Harvard. If you had done this at Harvard, however, it's likely they would have figured out some way to expell you for academic dishonesty.

When we first arrived in Mass and we went to public school... the fear of being shunned, shunned me from speaking for the first few years... I only spoke when forced to. Even though ESL helped me ease in slowly.

The fear of being corrected still hunts me.

I know this guy Jose, who has a thick Spanish accent, and he doesn't seem to mind at all... it used to bother me... but now I see that if it bothers me, I'm the one with the problem.

But then, hispanics were not the only (or most prominent) ethnic group to be so besmirched during that era.

Shouting Thomas said...

You must be happy now that the villain is white hetero men.

I have to agree with RC. Where I grew up, the Poles got it the worst, followed by Jews, Italians and Irish. Hispanics never got a mention. Blacks only rarely, because there weren't any around, and the whole point was to insult your friends to their face.

Poor Geraldo will never live down his trashy talk show or the Capone's vault. Like John Kerry "served in Nam", Geraldo is an experience "war corespondent", remind me again. I bet you twenty he also has lifts in his shoes.

Well...for however brief a time, Kerry did serve in Viet Nam, so I fail to see the point of your snarky quote marks. Whatever one may say about Kerry, good or bad, he did go into a war theater with no assurance he would come out of it whole or alive...which is far more than one can say for repugnant war pigs like Dick "I Had Other Priorities" Cheney or George "I Joined the Texas Air National Guard to Avoid Viet Nam" Bush.

The purpose of this was not a "prank", in the sense of a joke...it is an aggressive flip of the middle finger to these people, very much in the style of Sasha Baron Cohen ("Bhorat"), a rebuke for some prejudice that the actor feels they harbor towards him, and (more importantly) a good launch to his career.

The purpose of this was not a "prank", in the sense of a joke...it is an aggressive flip of the middle finger to these people, very much in the style of Sasha Baron Cohen ("Bhorat"), a rebuke for some prejudice that the actor feels they harbor towards him, and (more importantly) a good launch to his career.

I mean who would fake an accent, except as part of a deceit, thus demonstrating a nefarious or mendacious nature, or just an asshole? What's the point?

When re-entering the country, I am regularly asked questions about whether I am really an American (because I sound like I am from England, to a person who has never been to England). Occasionally, I have avoided such questioning by putting on a heavy, fake Southern accent. That's kind of deceit, except I really was born in the South -- it says so right on my passport.

When I was small, my sisters and I entertained ourselves with different accents. In a speech class, I can understand the temptation to use a non-native accent. It forces listeners to listen more closely to what you say, and can make stupid statements sound marginally more profound as a result. Additionally, if you also use the rhythms of the other language, that can make the speech sound more lively and entertaining than a speech delivered in the synthetic Standard-American drone of a news announcer. Not what the speaker here was doing, but I can see the appeal.

Actually, continuing that point -- that's obviously something Obama does. He adopts a fake African-American vernacular accent from time to time in his speeches because it adds a bit more liveliness to his speaking style. And the fact that AAVE is generally non-rhotic (like other Southern accents) helps the vowels open up, which I think gives a more sonorous, rounded feel to the delivery.

which is far more than one can say for repugnant war pigs like Dick "I Had Other Priorities" Cheney or George "I Joined the Texas Air National Guard to Avoid Viet Nam" Bush.

First, I doubt Cheney could have passed a physical to get in the military and probably didn't. Knowing Cheney his statement probably meant, "It's none of your fucking business".

Secondly, Kerry didn't join the regular Navy, he joined the reserves, was unlucky and got called up. By besmirching Bush in the Air Guard you besmirch the Air Guard. Evidently you don't know what interceptor pilots in the Air Guard do.

My point was that real military heroes don't advertise. They are not like Ivy grads who tell you where they went to school within three minutes of meeting you. Maybe that's where Kerry got the habit.

This Speech Class reminds me of the one in "Clueless" except the one in "Clueless" was in high school and had somewhat advanced topics whereas this is clearly a college level course with old people in it and they are giving speeches about their favorite thing and their favorite person, like it's first grade show and tell or something. And they're probably going into debt that they will never pay off to do it.

That guy playing the president of the Phone Company is Pat Harrington, Jr., who I first saw on MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY (The Danny Thomas Show) and who later became more well known playing Dwayne Schneider (the super?) on ONE DAY AT A TIME.

John, he recorded the class himself. He had a small camera hidden/mounted on the board he had sitting on the chalkboard. There's a quick shot at about the 1:45 mark when the camera moves as he picks the board up.

John, he recorded the class himself. He had a small camera hidden/mounted on the board he had sitting on the chalkboard. There's a quick shot at about the 1:45 mark when the camera moves as he picks the board up.

I suspect he thought he was going to experience discrimination due to his accent, and planned his finale accordingly. But apparently everyone accepted he was who he pretended to be, which is why his last statement seems so misplaced. He says he became "pretty good friends" with one of his classmates but made him out to be a fool. I do not think the word "friend" means what he thinks it does.

Let's see, Scary Harry Reid had to apologize for accusing President Homeboy of using a Negro dialect!

"Journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported the remarks in their new book, "Game Change," which is scheduled to be in bookstores Tuesday.

The authors quote Reid as saying privately that Obama, as a black candidate, could be successful thanks, in part, to his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

And Miss Hillary "... ain't no ways tard!" when it comes to fighting for the civil rights!

McTriumph said... First, I doubt Cheney could have passed a physical...

You omitted that Cook has no criticism for actual draft dodgers but piles of shit for those with the same intent who were successful through different means. As with all of his criticisms his position is 100% determined by who is acting, the action itself is irrelevant.

The community college at which I taught had scores of speech and reading classes. 60% of the students were remedial -- in other words, they could not pass very, very simple qualifying exams in very, very basic skills. Still, we gave free money to every one of them.

The school asked the teachers -- including adjuncts -- to come in before the semester started to help students fill out their FAFSA form, which has three bloody questions. We were told this was volunteer work. We were told the forms were too confusing for many students.

So we were asked to volunteer to fill in a form for student too unqualified and too lazy to even bother to ask for free money to sit around in classrooms talking about their favorite pop stars while pretending they were learning something.

I don't know - I had a "Mexican" neighbor a few years ago who had a few words that might give a clue. He was born (of legal immigrants before his birth) in the US of A. But he looked, well...Mexican. And...he doesn't speak Spanish. And he said to me, "I'm not a Mexican, I'm an American. Why should I speak Spanish?"

I don't know - I had a "Mexican" neighbor a few years ago who had a few words that might give a clue. He was born (of legal immigrants before his birth) in the US of A. But he looked, well...Mexican. And...he doesn't speak Spanish. And he said to me, "I'm not a Mexican, I'm an American. Why should I speak Spanish?"

I am not even Mexican, but I look Hispanic enough that people on the street address me in Spanish. Or it might be some other Romance language that is not French, but I'm pretty sure it is always Spanish. This happened to me regularly in LA while I was a college student (meanwhile, my lily-white roommate was always addressed in English). It happens a lot less on the East Coast, which is somewhat less, ah, progressive than California on racial matters, but even on the East Coast, it still happens from time to time.

If I were in the class, I would have laughed. It is funny. But not that funny. For 4 months he fakes an accent...that's pathological.

I would never trust him on anything again.

I don't know ... I kind of dig these sort of cultural experiments. I had a thought once that I would become the biggest Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan out of the blue for a month ... and then stop, but never acknowledge it or address it, just to see how people would react.

I know a young, prominent Mexican-American comedian who cited "Jose Jimenez" as his inspiration for trying standup in the first place. He was utterly unaware that Dana was a Jew. So... I suppose it doesn't really matter that Dana's schtick was (or was perceived by some as) "condescending and insulting." For some, it was rightly perceived as a joke.

"You omitted that Cook has no criticism for actual draft dodgers but piles of shit for those with the same intent who were successful through different means. As with all of his criticisms his position is 100% determined by who is acting, the action itself is irrelevant."

I have to assume you're being intellectually dishonest as I can't believe you're so dumb.

I have no issue with people who avoided serving in Viet Nam...it was a horrid, purposeless war--just as our present wars are--and were there a draft now, I would cheer any who refused to be drafted.

However, when you have these swine who avoided the war to save their own skins--because they could--come into office and start wars for political purposes, based on lies, where they send others to kill and be killed, one's gorge does insist on rising more than just a tad.

I have to assume you're being intellectually dishonest as I can't believe you're so dumb.

When those whose who believe Smoot Hawley is the answer to our economic woes call you dumb you know you're on the right track.

It's doubly meaningful when that same person uses third grade mockery to people avoiding Vietnam service and ten minutes later claim they "have no issue with people who avoided serving in VietNam" as if the rest of us suffer from the same delusions you do.

Except that Clinton broke the law by leaving the country when he didn't have a deferrment. Kerry got a dishonorable discharge, and lost his medals. His dishonorable discharge was later upgraded during the Carter Administration. Later as a Senator Kerry had enough pull to get his medals back. That is why Kerry still refuses to reveal his military records.

By contrast, GW Bush made his records available. His TANG unit didn't have funding for enough flight hours for the pilots returning from Viet Nam and the TANG only F-102 pilots, so GW Bush got permission to get out, leaving space and funds for the veteran pilots.

I got kicked out of two colleges. I came from a small town, did well on the SATs and thought that meant I should be able to handle high speed advanced math classes. It didn't. I failed.

I went to a small midwestern college to get a Psych degree. After 4 years in the Army I went to a large western university on GI Bill, and with coaching from my first wife (thanks Suzanne!) managed to get a second BS in Mech Eng. 20 years later, I am glad of my second, third and 4th changes that you just don't get under the Euro-Japan system.

Well...for however brief a time, Kerry did serve in Viet Nam, so I fail to see the point of your snarky quote marks. Whatever one may say about Kerry, good or bad, he did go into a war theater with no assurance he would come out of it whole or alive...which is far more than one can say for repugnant war pigs like Dick "I Had Other Priorities" Cheney or George "I Joined the Texas Air National Guard to Avoid Viet Nam" Bush.

Where did you serve , Bob?I had three years ROTC until they found a congenital heart defect. What about you?

Althouse wrote, "Going public now, he's leveraging his comedy career on deceit and betrayal, which only seems worthwhile if they really were small-minded bigots."

I'd say that by buying into his faked stereotypical behavior, they proved they were.

Pogo said, "I mean who would fake an accent, except as part of a deceit, thus demonstrating a nefarious or mendacious nature, or just an asshole? What's the point?"

See above.

DADvocate said... My dad loved The Jack Benny Show and Bill Dana was on it regularly.

What's her name?SueSue?Si.

Not Bill Dana. Mel Blanc. IIRC that bit was carried over from Benny's radio show. Note Benny nearly cracks up here. http://youtu.be/O9s8U0O0XPE

Bill Dana did have his own TV series, playing Jose as a bellhop. http://youtu.be/h4vDcx2V0PA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056741/combined

I remember a detail of one episode distinctly. He quoted the Declaration of Independence perfectly on some exam (possibly for naturalization) but he was accused of cheating because nobody could do that. Of course, he proved he had memorized it,

One of my favorite sections in "The President's Analyst" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKqo3TvZoI#t=45

In a parallel universe Russians speak English with a Hispanic accent and Hispanics speak with a Russian accent. When the former is spoofed in the parallel galaxy the racialists don't bat an eye. When the second is spoofed the racialists cry racial stereotype.

Conclusion: It's only racist if the accent you are spoofing is that of a non-white.

Conclusion of conclusion: People like Robert Cooke are blinded by color.

"It's doubly meaningful when that same person uses third grade mockery to people avoiding Vietnam service and ten minutes later claim they "have no issue with people who avoided serving in VietNam" as if the rest of us suffer from the same delusions you do."

Well, now I'm uncertain. Maybe you aren't as dumb as your previous remark (to which I replied) would suggest, and you are, as I asserted originally, intellectually dishonest, as I did state clearly my objections to our stalwart chickenhawks Cheney and Bush. Yet, you insist on claiming my objection is merely to the fact of their avoiding being drafted.

Cookie:Dick "I Had Other Priorities" Cheney or George "I Joined the Texas Air National Guard to Avoid Viet Nam" Bush.

Here were your exact words. Presumably you're at least intelligent enough to realize these insults are targeted at their lack of service and not their later actions. Maybe you can explain the lack of Bill Clinton's inclusion with "I was too busy not inhaling".

I realize you have to lash out because your attack on their lack of service was a mistake. You let the mask slip and showed your real motivation so there's really no other option. But it's still sad.

Of course, I love doing different accents, and I love practical jokes (as long as I'm not the victim!), so I would totally do the same thing if I thought I could get away with it. Alas, I look completely northern European, so I would have to do a German accent or something, and that's not nearly as engaging.

Cheney and Bush started two wars, for no exigent reason of self-defense or for the self-defense of an ally, for purely political purposes, and they had no qualms about sending Americans to kill and be killed--or maimed--for their baseless and criminal political wars. They demonstrated great qualms, however, about sacrificing themselves for that other purely political war, Viet Nam.

(Moreover, I was contrasting Bush and Cheney with Kerry, whose service McTriumph seemed to find snark-worthy, even though it was, as limited as it was, far greater than any service Cheney or Bush have ever given to this country.)

They are directly responsible for every American killed or maimed (both physically and mentally)in our wars over the past 11 years, (joined in this responsibility a few years ago by Obama), not to mention they very many more victims of our bombs and bullets who reside(d) in the lands we have invaded. Every one of those are lives wasted, simply thrown away, to serve their ends.

Would that they had had the same regard for the lives of others as they had for their own.

Robert Cook said... (Moreover, I was contrasting Bush and Cheney with Kerry, whose service McTriumph seemed to find snark-worthy, even though it was, as limited as it was, far greater than any service Cheney or Bush have ever given to this country.)

Thanks for admitting my point. You attacked Bush and Cheney for something your stated worldview holds as desireable in order to protect Kerry.

Maybe his point was that only one person realised that his choice of items must be a joke. Why didn't they realise? because with his accent they didn't really look at him and realise what a guy like him would or would not like. They didn't see him.